The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday released a report that recommends the agency consider developing guidance and taking other steps to address the benefits and risks of drugs and medical devices using nanotechnology.

A newly detected, hidden "string order" that extends over a length of 30 nanometers in a material that is otherwise apparently disordered, could have implications for the design of materials at the nanoscale, including those used for a developing concept known as quantum computing.

To produce materials for modern electronics, small amounts of impurities are introduced into silicon - a process called doping. Scientists recently succeeded in being the first to implement doping in the field of molecular electronics.